Guild Wars 2

Cultus.8031:

@ OP
Do you have any thoughts about Karaka’s shell (if that’s correct name, cant check i’m at work atm) and stats it gives, is it worth having. I had some sick thoughts about going with shell and triforce pendant, but before i act i would like to hear your thoughts on it.

I’ve added it to mine in replacement of one of my Knight’s Earrings that had a zerker gem, my feeling is the stats i’ve gained (vit, cond. dmg and healing power) outweight the small loss in the stats I had. Not to mention 3% more magic find for free

Triforce is insane but then you’d have to be too to bother getting it

thank you for answering, man!

akamon.2769:

i’ve yet to test, but i’ve seen another thread (videos) where people were running Pow/Vit/Tou gear, and then Knight’s jewelry, along with the prec to toughness trait, as well as sigil of accuracy and they had around 40%+ crit.

sounds interesting, can you link/pm those? with full exo knights armor/weapon and green ’zerkes jewels im sitting at ~40%, i think thats impossible to reahc without prec on amor or speccing more into prec tree.

akamon.2769:

though, sinc eyou’re already got knight’s gear, you can maybe get two valkyrie rings, while keeping the rest knight’s jewelry. and slowly upgrade to exotics ( i would skip rare jewelry).

yeah, would be the cheapest way to increase healthpool, i was also thinking about trying the prec/vit/heal route.

akamon.2769:

at the same time, i used to run CM quite a bit in rare knight’s armour, and then just green masterwork jewels that were all over the place. i feel for this build, toughness is actually more beneficial. in your new gear, what is your HP pool sitting at? with full knight’s exotic, you shouldn’t feel like a glass cannon at all. CM i think is a bit overtuned and depends on chance a lot. for e.g. if a bunch of riflemen all decide to target you, you’re downed easily. with that dungeon, i always sacrifice a utility slot for Wall of Reflection. Also helps to use a shield sometimes if you feel the need to be more defensive. i feel it’s more the path itself and perhaps the group dynamics you were running with.

hp pool sitting at ~14k, im feeling this is just too low when getting condition spammed. i use healskill/purity/purging flames for removal which worked really well but yesterday in most cases the second i hammered the button i was downed already, maybe this build suffers more from downscaling, maybe those mobs simply do hit that hard. i dont know. one of my mates stated that high toughness and low hp pool could both be aggro-factors which could be true since on almost every pull after i threw out some hits everything decided to savage me. im going to try soldier runes and higher lvl dungeons.

akamon.2769:

even in green working up to rare gear which i ran for a long time, i was able to outlast a lot of content using this build. : )))

i was last man standing in my group in rare vit/pow/tough gear without runes lol

akamon.2769:

p.s. i assume you meant your build was 0/0/30/30/10? instead of 20 in virtues : ))

yes ofc, i very much like the traited consecration cd.

and guys im not whinig, it just puzzles me why the new, shiny exotic armor with the recommended stats doesnt feel like the upgrade i was hoping for

@zing:
May i suggest you integrate your set with the right foods and consumables?
They could be the boost you’re looking for.

Was thinking about:.

Plates of Lemongrass
Superior Sharpening Stone
Loaf of Omnomberry Bread
Master Maintenance Oil

to name a few.

I’m glad that I can read this guide and see that everything in it I came to on my own. It’s very reassuring, lol.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I would highly recommend Knight’s armor with Berserker mods (Ruby orbs / jewels). It keeps toughness up pretty high and also gives around 40% base crit chance, with upwards of 50% crit damage.

The real kicker is getting a Berserker weapon with a Superior Sigil of Perception. With +250 precision (though you lose it on downed) you can get over 50% crit chance, and with over 50% crit damage, that means more than half your hits are doing more than double the damage. It’s beautiful, especially since you can do this much damage and still not get roflstomped by mobs.

Side note: I once ran up to the North part of the Cathedral of Eternal Radiance, and seeing that no other players were there, I just ran up to the 10+ mobs standing around the fortifications. I took all of them out (4-5 attacking me at any given time) without going down, and I would have easily taken the fortifications if more enemies hadn’t been coming in waves (especially those flying guys… they were a real surprise and did a lot of damage, lol).

tl;dr this build can do amazing things if you use the right skills and play effectively

@zing – you’re welcome and hope it helps. there are plenty of Guardian vets/pros here who i’ve slowly (and still am) learnt from. here is the link to Strife’s Guardian guide:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/70142-after-100s-of-hours-my-final-guardian-build/
you can watch the video for the actual stats. do note that in a group, you’ll usually benefit from your allies as well. use your dodges well and plan how you go about taking on each mob or area. you’ll get it! ; )))

14k is not too bad and i can still feel comfortable with. but more safe around 15k and up. if conditions are giving you trouble, do use your mitigation and cleansing skills. again, Wall or Reflection works really well in CM. : )) high toughness usually does attract more aggro, but i don’t know how the mechanic in this game works entirely. each mob is different as well. do try other dungeons and see if it works better. in general, this build is quite versatile, but you do have to switch around every so often depending on the situation. which is what Brutaly advocates as well – this build can be extremely flexible and achieve similar effects. soldier runes are pretty darn awesome ; ))

and seconding what Fabsm said – use food accordingly to help augment your skills and build! good luck!!

@Andred – thanks for the share! i’ve thought about using Ruby orbs as well. running soldier runes right now though and hard to “sacrifice” the extra set bonuses from runes. but i’ll definitely give it a shot since i’m a sucker for crits. :PPP

Hey guys!

My stats right now:

Power: 1556
Precision: 1673
Toughness: 1611
Vitality: 1344
Attack: 2540
Crit chance: 40
Crit damage: 48
Armor: 2822
Health: 15085
Healing power: 387
Heal on dodge: ca 500

Full knights set with 2x Hoelbrak, 2x Fire, 2 slots free
The rest is all lvl 80 rares:
Berserker Hammer, major sigil of strength
Scepter, major sigil of perception
Focus, superior sigil of energy
Trinkets 3x magi, 2x soldier

I’m upgrading the sigils when I get the exotic weapons.

I’ve been following Brutality’s stat recommendations under point 18 as a guideline when getting my starter 80 stuff. Still do btw.

I have the 15/30/20/5 build with signet mastery, purity and empowering might. As you probably already suspect I’m going for the might stacking build. I might eventually make a more support focused build, I like the 1k dodge heal, but that’s a thing for the future and mostly a gold issue.

As you can see I have two slots free on my armor and I need some help with deciding the best choice. This is mostly a build for dungeons.

1st choice: add 2 strength runes = +20 might duration + 25 power
2nd choice: add 1x hoelbrak, 1x fire = +100 power
3rd choice: 5x ranger, 1x lyssa = 190 precision, 8% crit damage (- 50 power, – 40 might duration)

My thoughts:

1st choice: I’m not sure I really need 20% more might duration, I already can stack it quite fast.
2nd choice: IMO I lack power, this would help but I get alot with might stacking anyway
3rd choice: With my calculation I get 49% crit chance with this option and a crit damage boost to 56%. I guess its also the more defensive choice and sync better with AH. More crits for vigor, might

I’m also leaning towards the 3rd choice because I’m thinking of dropping the sigil of perception on the off hand and go for a purity sigil instead. I think stacking sigils is not very good in FOTM with the short fractals and frequent zoning. With that sigil gone I really need more crit chance in some way.

TL/DR: With a hammer, is 40->49% base crit chance better than might duration?

@ Vorz
I played alot with this build and different gear. If you wanna run full knights gear you should go for the 0/5/30/30/5 or 0/0/30/30/10 trait. Why ? Coz knights gear lack HP but you compesate with high armour.
I run 0/5/30/30/5 trait full knights with 3x fire 3x hoelbrak.
These are the stats i have:
Power: 1756 Attack:2876
Precision: 1791 Crit chance:46% Crit dmg: 30
Toughness: 2156 Armour: 3367
Vitality: 1251 Health: 14155 Healing power: 3

And I use chocholate omnombery creams ( 20% boon duration 40% magic find food) to compesate for that 20 % boon duration for not using 2x strength runes.

If you want more dps out of this you can just swap knights trinkets and hammer for berzerkers and you are set Hope this helps you

I don’t know who cares about this but here it goes.

I followed the idea Brutally had about using a Superior Sigil of Blood and omnomberry pies…

This combination gives you a 96% chance to steal health on crit.

It works like a champ. I use a Knights Hammer + All Exotic Knight’s Draconic gear. ( Ugly as kitten btw )

Toughness out the wazoo and low HP. ~ 13,000 +/- a hundred.

I feel like my only Achilles Heel is a sharp damage spike… but you can time Aegis from “Retreat!” or Virtue of Courage… which along with “Renewed Focus” gives you 3 Aegis chances vs. any Champion/Mob.

I highly recommend the Knights’ Armor + Knight’s Hammer (TOUGHNESS!) and then rolling with a Superior Sigil of Blood + Omnomberry Pies.

0/5/30/30/5

thanks for the share @JackBurton! : ))) i’lll be giving this a shot soon as well. i was thinking of placing a sigil of blood on my greatsword (also Knight) and seeing how it works out. keeping my hammer as berserkers and accuracy for now ; ))

Thank you for such a great guide. I was already gearing up with the Power/Vit/Tough, but this has really helped me spec out more of what / where to go, especially with the traits. During dungeon runs, I’m definitely surviving a lot more, hardly ever going downed.

One question though – what you recommend as your “standard” optional weapon switch? I’ve normally been using the staff, starting off giving my party the might stacks, throwing out the speed symbol then switching over to the hammer, and then switching back to the staff for some quick party-mid heals if needed. But I’d like to know what you would recommend.

Brutaly, I am wanting to swap over to this build for wvw. I currently run a more tpvp oriented 1 hander auto attack meditation build. It’s fine for 1 vs. 1 encounters, but usually I run with my guild in a group of 3-15 people. Our specific job is to ambush the enemy and wreck their zergs from behind or flanks.

My gear is mostly Power Vitality Toughness exotics with a berzerker exotic pants that I found on a drop or something. I use power runes currently, but am willing, of course, to swap to rangers or eagles; whatever.

Which build/traits would you pick as the best for a person whos job is to get into the mix and just cause chaos without dying immediately? BTW The links to the builds you put up, for some reason, dont display the trait selections so what I see is several builds with the same point distribution. Maybe its something with my computer settings? ::shrug::

Thanks, and thanks for the breakdown on hammerfication.

I thought I was lagging / bugging or something like that when ninjaskipping -_-
That killed me numerous times but now … thanks mate

JackBurton.1803:

I don’t know who cares about this but here it goes.

I followed the idea Brutally had about using a Superior Sigil of Blood and omnomberry pies…

This combination gives you a 96% chance to steal health on crit.

It works like a champ. I use a Knights Hammer + All Exotic Knight’s Draconic gear. ( Ugly as kitten btw )

Toughness out the wazoo and low HP. ~ 13,000 +/- a hundred.

I feel like my only Achilles Heel is a sharp damage spike… but you can time Aegis from “Retreat!” or Virtue of Courage… which along with “Renewed Focus” gives you 3 Aegis chances vs. any Champion/Mob.

I highly recommend the Knights’ Armor + Knight’s Hammer (TOUGHNESS!) and then rolling with a Superior Sigil of Blood + Omnomberry Pies.

0/5/30/30/5

Try adding Superior Sharpening Stone or Master Maintenance Oil to the mix for added spice

I wonder why in the wiki Maintenance Oil are supposed to “increase precision” when they do the same thing as the stone… bug?
Edit: they in fact give precision, wiki is wrong.

@Fabsm – okay, good to know. i thought i was seeing things. lol. was lookign to get maintence oils cause i kept hearing about ‘em. looked ’em up on wiki and didn’t see what people said it would give.

This build is awesome. I’m a new guardian, started using the basic build (or at least part of it since im not 80 yet) and i’m in love with the animationskip thing.

Its just great, thanks for this post =)

Does anybody have working links to the original builds? Whenever I follow the links it just takes me to an empty skills page.

@ExquisitePriide – it’s liek that for a reason. : )) this “build” or “guide” won’t tell you exactly what to do. the best thing of the altrustic healing build is that there can be as many variations as you can think of! experiment a bit, take a look at the lines and see which ones you like. there are some traits that benefit more and create more synergy but you can still choose and pick to your own tastes.

i for one used to play a 0/15/30/20/5 build. now i’m running 0/5/30/30/5. i know some who swear by 0/1/030/30/0 and others choose to go with 0/0/30/30/10. and i’m still coming up with others as well.

so go nuts!

Any thoughts on any modifications/new builds now that AH has taken a sizeable nerf? Would a meditation-based Monk’s Focus build be better now? Or perhaps this makes Empowering Might crucial to maintain AH healing?

doomie.3928:

Any thoughts on any modifications/new builds now that AH has taken a sizeable nerf? Would a meditation-based Monk’s Focus build be better now? Or perhaps this makes Empowering Might crucial to maintain AH healing?

Yeah I was wondering that too. Was playing my guardian today and really didn’t notice that much of a healing difference as I know how to dodge out of the way. For me, standing there and just tanking it while dishing it out needed the nerf :/

Anyway I have somewhat switched my build a little to using this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARSlcgiDXFSLEf4ESWhVC7BGlRw31DICDbIA;ToAg1CnowyglALLWOskYt+Y8B

The empowering might still heals us, blasting combo fields still heals us – I really don/t think the build has changed much?

Daedalus Palamaon.8934:

doomie.3928:

Any thoughts on any modifications/new builds now that AH has taken a sizeable nerf? Would a meditation-based Monk’s Focus build be better now? Or perhaps this makes Empowering Might crucial to maintain AH healing?

Yeah I was wondering that too. Was playing my guardian today and really didn’t notice that much of a healing difference as I know how to dodge out of the way. For me, standing there and just tanking it while dishing it out needed the nerf :/

Anyway I have somewhat switched my build a little to using this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUEQJARSlcgiDXFSLEf4ESWhVC7BGlRw31DICDbIA;ToAg1CnowyglALLWOskYt+Y8B

The empowering might still heals us, blasting combo fields still heals us – I really don/t think the build has changed much?

I agree. I think, if anything, the changes have forced players that want to just stand there and facetank to switch up their strategy. I was running Empowering Might before the patch, along with the lifesteal food Omnomberry Pie…noticing very little change in my survivability.

What says Brutaly about the AH nerf?

Was there an undocumented nerf? I did notice my HP was a bit lower than usual after combat.

I’ve honestly not seen a difference, really, but I’ve made it a habit to stay mobile while tanking and throw in dodges to avoid normal attacks rather than just stand there and take it, so that may be why. I do notice that my vigor uptime is a bit less and I can chain dodges a bit less than I did, but other than that, my 0/15/30/20/5 build with hammer and AH is unaffected.

Mouse.3271:

I’ve honestly not seen a difference, really, but I’ve made it a habit to stay mobile while tanking and throw in dodges to avoid normal attacks rather than just stand there and take it, so that may be why. I do notice that my vigor uptime is a bit less and I can chain dodges a bit less than I did, but other than that, my 0/15/30/20/5 build with hammer and AH is unaffected.

OK now roll an AH radiance build with sword, and then tell me if its uneffected by this change. I use and AH hammer too, but when something is wrong, i talk.

Many know that this whole build is built upon a bug to do with the Altruistic Healing trait.

Just enjoy the build whilst it lasts. I’m sure the developers will fix the trait so it works as intended one day.

@Tarn – may i ask what bug is this you speak of? genuine question.

i play mainly with a hammer and staff. occasionalyl will switch out for the GS. or even other weapons including scepter, shield, mace, focus.. what have you.

haven’t felt a HUGE difference. although slightly felt less.. “survivable”. mainly in WvW though. more than still fine in PvE or dungeons. i did switch my armour (incl. runes) as well though so unsure of if there’s been a huge difference in the build. will switch back to old gear and test it again.

Brutaly.6257:

Here comes something really interesting I think you should get! In cursed shore, between Harrowed sea and Winterknell shore, there is a settlement and a karma vendor and there you can buy masterpiece (green) earrings with pre/heal stats on them. It’s the only ones I seen ingame and I can’t find any exotics in the database that has those stats.

Its kind of weird that those aren’t exotics imo but be greatful, they fit a support AH/hammer guardian beautifully. GET THEM.

There are rare (Yellow) Pre/Vit/Heal trinkets under the name Magi

• Crest of the Magi
• Magi Ring
• Magi’s Amulet
• Magi’s Spineguard
• Magi’s Field Guide

i’m trying to put together a set that is more focused on Magi’s stats as well. looking forward to test how this works.

Thank you Elthuzar.9478 for pointing it out:

Yea, what’s bugged about AH?

I’m trying to figure out if the Giver’s armor would be worthwhile for this, combined with runes of Altruism. That’s about +31% boon duration when you include 10 points in Valor, but you’d be losing a lot of precision. A possible upside of this is that you’d have another source of Fury, but even then it’d last only 6ish seconds on a minimum of 30s cool down. Still, time it right and with shelter you could get a ton of might from the blocking and the rune of altruism.

Ah well, I was excited about the new prefixes.

Altruistic Healing: Just look at the name and the description. In no way should it work that we can heal ourselves by applying a boon to ourselves.

Altruistic definition: Unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.

So it’s basically saying; helping others helps ourselves, that’s the crux of this trait. Furthermore it’s how guardians work (in principle). But that is not how it works now.

In truth I think Anet is a little hesitant to fix it though because so many guardians use it. In it’s current state it’s fairly wonderful. Additionally, if one’s smart fixing the trait will not change the effectiveness too much of us using the skill when in groups/others anyways. If we’re smart about it. After all, there’s plenty of opportunity for us to apply boons to allies throughout any length battle.

Oh COME ON, its only the name of the skill! no one choose the skill to use for the name lol!
For what i know the name skill can be “bring coffee to me” so its not a real yardstick to justify a change, even our meditations, doesnt seem like real meditations, but i see no one whine about them.
Every class in a game WITHOUT trinity, must be primarily selfish and then the same tool can be used to help others or increase teamwork, BUT every tool of the class, must be Strong For the CLASS ALONE.

Tarn.1374:

Altruistic Healing: Just look at the name and the description. In no way should it work that we can heal ourselves by applying a boon to ourselves.

Altruistic definition: Unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others.

So it’s basically saying; helping others helps ourselves, that’s the crux of this trait. Furthermore it’s how guardians work (in principle). But that is not how it works now.

In truth I think Anet is a little hesitant to fix it though because so many guardians use it. In it’s current state it’s fairly wonderful. Additionally, if one’s smart fixing the trait will not change the effectiveness too much of us using the skill when in groups/others anyways. If we’re smart about it. After all, there’s plenty of opportunity for us to apply boons to allies throughout any length battle.

So just because of the name, you’re assuming it’s bugged? Seems pretty far-fetched to me.

The description is in line with any other skills since you count as an allies yourself. Look at Empowering Might, you also get the might boons as well as the whole party.

Trungalung.7850:

So just because of the name, you’re assuming it’s bugged? Seems pretty far-fetched to me.

The description is in line with any other skills since you count as an allies yourself. Look at Empowering Might, you also get the might boons as well as the whole party.

Yeah, and it’s not limited to the Guardian. A couple of classes can trait things such as might-stacking builds that also apply to themselves. They would have to remove the behavior from many traits and skills, not just AH, and that would probably go against a core philosophy in their design that makes players want to naturally help each other (experience incentives for picking up downed players, for example).

Most if not all of the boons given through guardian skills benefit others, but removing the ability to include ourselves in this benefit would hurt our solo ability. And with a class that has been stated is strong when granted boons and weaker when not, I don’t expect the behavior to change :p

Speaking of AH, I’m not really seeing an appreciable difference. I do have to be a little more mobile and do notice I cannot dodge as much, but hammer isn’t a “stand there and tank” weapon, anyway – if for nothing else, the need to interrupt the animation at the end of hammer 1.

Ganzo.5079:

Oh COME ON, its only the name of the skill! no one choose the skill to use for the name lol!
For what i know the name skill can be “bring coffee to me” so its not a real yardstick to justify a change, even our meditations, doesnt seem like real meditations, but i see no one whine about them.
Every class in a game WITHOUT trinity, must be primarily selfish and then the same tool can be used to help others or increase teamwork, BUT every tool of the class, must be Strong For the CLASS ALONE.

Hey, don’t go yelling and getting all hot under the collar about it, sheesh.
It’s not my fault Anet’s grasp of the English language is primitive at best.

And it’s not their fault either that some people don’t understand that you count as your own ally in GW2.

I think it has to be less about the name and more about what it does… a lot of tooltips in the game are complete nonsense.

Papaganoosh (SPvP Officer, The Unnamed EU)

http://www.the-unnamed.com/spvpapp – recruiting skilled players for TPvP

This is a purely PvE post.

So I’ve been running dungeons with the AH Crithammer build for a while, and the problem I always seem to have is that it has MORE than enough survivability and group benefit without bringing enough damage to the table.

So today I did something crazy, and it seems to be working out quite well. I spent 15 points in the gasp ZEAL line and came up with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJASWlYg672FyKEfIFRug6DxDThGh/1DHSRGC

Nevermind the skill selection, those obviously change — the main issue is the traits.

I went with 15/0/30/20/5. This increases your personal damage significantly AND makes you even more valuable to the group than before — hear me out before you burn me at the stake for going Zeal.

In Zeal I went with Fiery Wrath for a nice 10% personal damage boost, and went up to 15 points for the minor trait “Symbolic Exposure – Symbols apply vulnerability to foes.” According to the wiki, this trait applies 1 stack of vulnerability for every pulse of a symbol. Upon testing in practice, each Symbol of Protection ticks up to a peak of 4 stacks of vuln, and the duration is such that you’re left with 2 or 3 stacks when the next Symbol hits in the auto attack chain. This isn’t HUGE, but hey 4 stacks of vulnerability with a decent duration every attack chain? Nothing to scoff at, and it adds even more benefit to the group than you already did. The Hammer auto attack chain becomes freakishly good, buffing and debuffing simultaneously. In comparison, the Warrior’s Axe #2 skill “Cyclone Axe” applies 4 stacks of vuln in an aoe effect and it takes up a whole skill slot with a SIX!!! second cooldown.

I chose larger symbols as opposed to shout reduction because it really helps apply the vuln.

So the reason I’m posting this is because I want some other opinions — I can’t really find any downside to this build as opposed to the standard crit hammer builds.

This brings the group:

• Constant Protection and up to 4 stacks of vulnerability from every hammer chain
• The normal Empowering Might that most any AH hammer build gives
• The normal benefits that anyone gives the group with 5 in Virtues

This brings you:

• 10% more damage from fiery wrath, even more from Symbolic Exposure, and 150 power

Downsides:

• No blinds from Virture of Justice, which you may or may not have had anyway.
• Longer recharge on your healing signet if you went deep in Radiance
• Less crit, which is less of an issue with the VP nerf
• No, uhh… retaliation duration increase from Virtues, maybe? I’m not sure if people even run that trait in dungeons.

So please give me some feedback on this tweak! I’ve run it in numerous dungeons today, and I have all the same survivability as before, but even more damage.

UncleDolan.9430:

…

If you want more damage, you can just swap your gears out to a more offensive set up (such as Berserkers). As for build, I think the best overall one is 0/0/30/30/10. Why is that? Because of flexibility, you have access to all the good traits for PvE dungeons. Let’s compare it to yours:

Gains:
-10% damage when endurance is low. Someone confirms that the extra damage will be boosted whenever you are not at 100% endurance. With ninja skips, you should have near permanent 10% damage.
-100 vitality or 1000 HP.
-Unlocked Honor Grandmaster trait slot and allow to pick and switch around one of these:

• Writ of Merciful: extra healing for yourself and whoever stands inside a symbol.
• Writ of Persistence: grant permanent protection without the need for extra boon duration.
• Two-Handed Mastery: 20% faster recharge on all two handers including both of our underwater weapons.
• Pure of Voice: group condition removal.
• Battle Presence: a more consistent group heal but doesn’t effect yourself as oppose to Writ of Merciful.

-5% boon duration and 5% faster recharge on Virtues
-Unlocked Virtues Adept trait slots:

• Master of Consecrations: greatly improve our bread and butter for dungeons, Wall of Reflect. Also improve Hallowed Ground for situations like the Inquests in Arah.
• Improved Spirit Weapon Duration: increase Shield of the Avenger duration. While the shield is not as strong as Wall of Reflection, it works against more attacks (Old Tom’s poison bolts, etc…).
• Unscathed Contender: 20% more damage while under aegis. On fights when you’re able to keep up aegis for a long time, this trait is extremely powerful. There’s numerous bosses in Fractals where you can just whack away with your scepter for 2-2.5k tennis balls with 80%+ up time on aegis.

Losses:
-150 power and 15% condition duration
-Symbolic Exposure: ~4% extra damage to the whole group.
-Zealot’s Speed: drop a symbol of wrath when you reach 25%. This minor trait is meh.
-Unlocked Adept Zeal trait slot:

• Fiery Wrath: 10% more damage to burning target.
• Spirit Weapon Mastery: faster recharge on Shield of the Avenger.
• Blinding Jeopardy: you can provide more burst damage for the team with vulnerability stacks for a loss of 10% personal damage. You can chain up to 18 vulnerabilities with Chain of Light, Zealot’s Embrace, and Signet of Wrath.

A 0/0/30/30/10 has much more flexibility in picking up traits that fits the situation since Honor has the most useful traits. Guardians are on the top of the food chain when it comes to dungeons because of the ability to nullifying range attacks (you can chain spells up to 50 seconds of range immunity). 10 in Virtues helps tremendously in our best category.

Again, if you need extra damage, swapping to an offensive set is more desirable. Unless you feel that even with full berserkers, it’s still too much survivability. Then you can trait into a more offensive role.

Trungalung.7850:

UncleDolan.9430:

…

….

Thanks for the response, Trung… Just what I was looking for, good stuff!

For what it’s worth, I found an actual use for hammer.

With 30 in Honor (for Two-Handed Mastery) and at least 10 in Virtues + boon duration runes, you get 3 stacks of might for 30s on a fire field blast finisher. With traited consecrations, you have Purging Flames (6s field, 2 blasts) and Hallowed Ground (12s field, 3 blasts), so you can put on 15 stacks of might at the beginning of the fight (plus 5 or so from Empowering Might) for a decent party-wide boost, then switch to GS and attack as normal till Purging Flames is back up.

The downside is that you’re stuck in hammer for at least 10s whenever you switch back to do a blast finisher into Purging Flames, but the extra stacks of might while you’re hammering away plus the fact that it’ll carry over into your GS attacks makes it worthwhile if your group isn’t already at 25. Even with the substantial DPS loss from being in hammer 30% of the time I think you should still be able to put out roughly equivalent damage on your own, and your party gets a substantial boost in the meanwhile.

Great guide

I suggest reading carefully and adapting to your own play style

germanfag here, so it’s likely not all

I have to admit that after some time using the Hammer got dull
Yes, it has some nice situative skills but usually it’s all #1 and #2…

So I started to think about going 0/0/30/30/10 Greatsword-Staff.
Some points seem positive like easier stacking of Might and simply “more buttons to mash” (esp. with 2H-Mastery).

Do you guys have tips for something like that?

you can go about it your own way i feel. personally i don’t feel there’s a huge difference in terms of using the hammer vs GS using your setup. although i feel more “safe” using a hammer. but if you play carefully, the same effect can be achieved with the GS easily. they GS can be even more CD dependent compared to the hammer i feel but if you prefer it, by all means. go for it! : ))

Hi everyone,

I will be lv 80 soon and have lots of AC badges.
Any recommendation on which armor to get from AC?
Should I go for full set Healing? Or Power Vitality Toughness? Or mix of both?

Have not decide on the ruin yet.

I am running 0/5/30/30/5 traits.

I will get berserker Hammer (blood sigil) and GS (may be critical chance sigil) from CoF badges and already owned full set of knight accessory.

Thanks for help in advance.

hey DanDan, if you’re sticking with the crithammer build as laid out in this thread, i want to argue that Knight’s is probably one of the easier ones to start off with. if you feel the need to boost your HP a bit, you can maybe opt for the chest and pants with pow/vit/tough from AC. the toughness helps you mitigate a lot of direct dmg (not conditions) so in a sense, and with a lower health pool, you need to heal “less” to make up for the dmg you’re taking and with the more “constant” stream of small heals with AH, you should be okay. (and as always, avoid / dodge out of the big hits). you can have plenty of condition removal to get rid of conditions.

i recently put together a set focused on healing power (mix of magi and cleric’s gear) but i felt it doesn’t work as well with your trait set up (i currently run 0/0/30/30/10). but you can give it a shot, since you have a lot of AC badges. i tried this set up with pow vit tough armour as well, but again, i missed having a higher crit chance, though i know there are some who did it and felt it worked more than fine for them in full PVT gear and knight’s trinkets. (make sure to take the toughness to precision trait – retributive armour? if you do go this route)

you really want to have a decent crit chance % for this to work as effective as possible (around 40%+ might be a good balancing point from my own experience).

p.s. look into omnomberry pies and ghosts for the extra chance to steal health in tandem with your blood hammer for even better effects. : )) sigil of accuracy is a good choice for your GS.

Thanks Brutal for the build and the greatly useful animation skipping

I am using Full Knight Armor with Full set of Rune of Soldier, Knight & Zerker Jewel
My build For PvE WvW is 0/5/30/30/5 and have 2 questions
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS7dlUgyC33xIEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741DK6QGC;TMArPGWsFB

Currently I am using a 3 Shout Build (HTL, SYG, SY/Retreat) since I have Rune of Soldier there will be 2 condition removal for a shout
but after reading some post here I am thinking of changing into a 2 Shout Build
May use SoJ (or any other recommendation?) instead to be more tanky
For sPvP i will choose SY, Judge Int., SoJ but for seems not suitable for PvE/WvW?

1. SYG has some overlap with SoJ (for Ret Boons), but I need a stun breaker… while HTL and SY sometimes are bugged with Pure of Voice… What would you suggest for the 2 shouts?

and for Sigil, I am using Hammer / Scepter+Focus (Sigil of Fire / Sigil of Energy+Ice)

1. Is Sigil of ice good? Since I have high Cri Rate and I was thinking to chill foe so i can keep my distance and use smite, or should I change to Sigil of Battle to be more reliable? Thanks

Nausica.5789:

Thanks Brutal for the build and the greatly useful animation skipping

I am using Full Knight Armor with Full set of Rune of Soldier, Knight & Zerker Jewel
My build For PvE WvW is 0/5/30/30/5 and have 2 questions
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAS7dlUgyC33xIEfIFRuAbBYPwI8741DK6QGC;TMArPGWsFB

Currently I am using a 3 Shout Build (HTL, SYG, SY/Retreat) since I have Rune of Soldier there will be 2 condition removal for a shout
but after reading some post here I am thinking of changing into a 2 Shout Build
May use SoJ (or any other recommendation?) instead to be more tanky
For sPvP i will choose SY, Judge Int., SoJ but for seems not suitable for PvE/WvW?

1. SYG has some overlap with SoJ (for Ret Boons), but I need a stun breaker… while HTL and SY sometimes are bugged with Pure of Voice… What would you suggest for the 2 shouts?

and for Sigil, I am using Hammer / Scepter+Focus (Sigil of Fire / Sigil of Energy+Ice)

1. Is Sigil of ice good? Since I have high Cri Rate and I was thinking to chill foe so i can keep my distance and use smite, or should I change to Sigil of Battle to be more reliable? Thanks

SYG is mandatory in every pvp centric build imo. In wvw i also thing wall of reflection is mandatory.

The third spot i use different ones from time to time. SOJ, retreat and judges intervention. It all depends on situation tbh.

Those sigils are really nice and the ice sigil is an excellent choice, if your comfortable playing with those then by all means do it. I use ice in my tpvp build and it works nice.

Instead of pure of voice use soldiers runes and superior aria, 2h mastery and empowering might or battle presence in a vit/pre/heal build.

akamon.2769:

hey DanDan, if you’re sticking with the crithammer build as laid out in this thread, i want to argue that Knight’s is probably one of the easier ones to start off with. if you feel the need to boost your HP a bit, you can maybe opt for the chest and pants with pow/vit/tough from AC. the toughness helps you mitigate a lot of direct dmg (not conditions) so in a sense, and with a lower health pool, you need to heal “less” to make up for the dmg you’re taking and with the more “constant” stream of small heals with AH, you should be okay. (and as always, avoid / dodge out of the big hits). you can have plenty of condition removal to get rid of conditions.

i recently put together a set focused on healing power (mix of magi and cleric’s gear) but i felt it doesn’t work as well with your trait set up (i currently run 0/0/30/30/10). but you can give it a shot, since you have a lot of AC badges. i tried this set up with pow vit tough armour as well, but again, i missed having a higher crit chance, though i know there are some who did it and felt it worked more than fine for them in full PVT gear and knight’s trinkets. (make sure to take the toughness to precision trait – retributive armour? if you do go this route)

you really want to have a decent crit chance % for this to work as effective as possible (around 40%+ might be a good balancing point from my own experience).

p.s. look into omnomberry pies and ghosts for the extra chance to steal health in tandem with your blood hammer for even better effects. : )) sigil of accuracy is a good choice for your GS.

Thanks Brutaly for such inspirational guide.
This guide made me dusted off my Guardian and lv him to 80

Thanks Akamon for your reply.
I reached 80 yesterday and with the following setup.

Chest and Legging – Exotic Knight
Helm, Shoulder, hands and boots – AC healing
Hammer, GS – Berserker from CoF
Accessories – Exotic knight with Emerald Orb

I did not use any Rune at this moment and used Emerald Orb x 6 for now.

I have over 50% crit chance.
Healing around 480
Power is a bit low but acceptable…..since I can stack Might pretty easily.

So far so good and test it out more.

@Brutaly – unsure if i missed this. so have you switched to magi’s (pre/vit/healing) gear? how has it been working out for you? also, how do you deal with toughness then? unless if you change your trait distrubution as well running that build

@Dan – hope that helps. sounds decent so far and i forget, with magi’s (AC), you’ll get high enough crit chance as well. you lose out on a bit of toughness but as long as you manage yourself well and don’t just “facetank”, you can benefit from the extra healing!